The Healthy Environment and Community Assessment Partnership (HECAP) is an ever-developing collaboration between the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health and other stakeholders in Indiana to improve environmental and community health.

Focusing on the environment and how communities interface with it, HECAP strives to promote the health of all people by creating tools and resources that can be used to inform the public as well as policy makers.

Below are links to these tools as well as resources for community members who desire to improve their environment and their lives.

Multi-Layer Data Community Action Tool

The MDCAT is a mapping tool that takes into consideration the burden of environmental pollution and social vulnerabilities on health to identify census tracts most vulnerable to the unequal distribution of environmental and social risk factors.

Designed as an Environmental Justice map, in collaboration with the EPA TRI University Challenge and the Society for Chemical Hazard Communication, MDCAT includes details about individual environmental and social risk factors which together identify vulnerable populations in Marion County which is mostly composed of Indianapolis, Indiana.

Effects of Climate Change on the Future of Local Communities in Indianapolis

This tool uses publicly available data to show the potential effects climate change could have on local Indianapolis communities. Zeroing in on the Near West side, the tool provides useful maps to inform decision making for emergency-preparedness planning, to show the importance of climate change mitigation, and to inform climate resilience.

Community Resources

These resources are designed to guide the Near West side community in fighting for a healthier environment. Providing the most important information about environmental hazards, these documents provide education as well as proposing real actions community members can take to improve their neighborhoods.